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Interview Josh Sawyer Interview at Gamestar.ru

Crooked Bee

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Tags: J.E. Sawyer; Obsidian Entertainment

The folks over at Gamestar.ru have interviewed Obsidian Entertainment's J. E. Sawyer for their "Knights of the Roleplaying Table" series. In the interview, Josh discusses RPG design, the industry, and the history of the genre. Have a snippet:

What biggest failure in RPG genre could you recollect?

In general, I think the biggest failure with RPGs is a tendency for designers to not think about player experience. They fixate on ideas or concepts instead of how a player is going to interact with content. In other genres, player experience is often all the game is. Ultimately, that's all RPG players have, too, but designers can often get lost in systems and spreadsheets instead of focusing on what the player is going to do in the game from moment to moment. It's important to start with a good idea, but if the good idea doesn't produce a good experience, it's a failure.

What in your opinion are the key moments in RPG genre that defined the direction all the games made after?

Without a doubt, the existence of tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons defined the paradigm for what RPGs were in the early days. For me, Bard's Tale, Wizardry, and Ultima were the "big ones" that shaped my experiences. The "Gold Box" games (Pool of Radiance, Curse of the Azure Bonds, et al.) were the next wave. In the years that followed, the new real-time games like Darklands, Eye of the Beholder, Ultima Underworld, and TES: Arena really expanded what RPGs could be.

After that, I think Fallout and Baldur's Gate marked the renaissance of RPGs in the late 90s. I feel that Fallout and Planescape: Torment established a great standard for player reactivity. That's the environment I came into when I started at Black Isle.

First RPG's made used board games as a prototype, where numbers and a talented storyteller mattered the most. Nowadays, have the story and action-packed gameplay become keystones in making a successful game, or do people still want hardcore games, only maybe changed a little? If they do, what are the changes needed?

One of the things that I think is great about the growth of digital distribution, whether it's via Steam on Windows PCs and Macs or through Apple's app store and Google Play, is that development costs can potentially go down for a lot of people. Additionally, Kickstarter campaigns like Brian Fargo's for Wasteland 2 show that there are plenty of gamers out there willing to pay good money for a "classic"-styled RPG.

To me, RPGs are fundamentally about choice and consequence. I think we can do that in big, high-action games and in small, slower-paced games. I'm glad there's room for a lot more developers and game styles.​

Click here for even more of Josh's thoughts.
 

Infinitron

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What the fuck is their problem with blank-slate characters? Does it remind them of Soviet oppression?
 

hiver

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In all these years reading these kinds of interviews from Sawyer and Avellone always ended increasing my blind hatred score by magnitudes.
Reading them always, always giving these perfect assessments and design philosophies and critical reflections of the RPGs past... and then seeing games Obsidian ended putting out can really drive a man insane with rage.

Rage against the publisher machine really...

- bullet in your head tube video placeholder-

If there was anyone really in need of some other type of funding these guys are it. Just thinking about what they could do if they were let of the leash is painful to imagine.
Or was... in the years of great decline.... and seeing that light at the end of the tunnel now and everything.

Of course there are many other devs as good and great who are not so exposed as Sawyer and Avellone to general web populations and codex.
Its just that these two get a lot of screen time around here.
 

Roguey

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A speaking player character and a blank slate are at odds at each other, what an odd preference to have.
In general, I think the biggest failure with RPGs is a tendency for designers to not think about player experience. They fixate on ideas or concepts instead of how a player is going to interact with content. In other genres, player experience is often all the game is. Ultimately, that's all RPG players have, too, but designers can often get lost in systems and spreadsheets instead of focusing on what the player is going to do in the game from moment to moment. It's important to start with a good idea, but if the good idea doesn't produce a good experience, it's a failure.
I like how this describes both Dragon Age and Age of Decadence. Same shit, wildly different methods of achieving it.
Game development is insular and we tend to regurgitate a lot of culture. I don't think that's good for the long-term health of companies or the industry as a whole.
...
In general I'm disappointed by how many developers approach conceiving and growing a game's narrative. I don't think there's anything wrong with using a storyline featuring a "hero's journey", but it's depressing when I see developers scoff at the suggestion that there are other things we can try. Every other form of fiction has managed to explore different avenues. Surely game developers, who also have the unique feature of player interaction are capable of doing more, aren't we? I'm not suggesting it's easy, but come on, guys.
Yeah, Bioware.
 

Untermensch

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It's sad to see people like Sawyer waste their talent designing """"rpgs"""" that are popular at the moment.
 
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Josh Sawyer said:
Some people don't care if the character is customizable (I heard a figure that the majority of Mass Effect players never customize Shepard's appearance at all; that sounds crazy to me)

I'm pretty sure that if most ME players could create a face that didn't look like a before picture they'd use that instead of the default bum stuffer.
 

flabbyjack

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It's sad to see people like Sawyer waste their talent designing """"rpgs"""" that are popular at the moment.

Last I heard, Sawyer was project director at Obsidian. And by hear I really mean shamelessly look up on some random internet site. So yeah... not really a designer anymore. PMs(Project Managers) make the big $$. But he's a "Director" not a manager so even more $$! Its not really sad either, in fact I'm kinda jealous.
 

Roguey

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flabbyjack Sawyer was both project director and lead designer on New Vegas and on formspring he said he's currently doing system design for a secret project. They can wear multiple hats at Obsidian.
 

Menckenstein

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If only Obsidian had a snackbar...
 

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